Smilegate Group
스마일게이트
IndustryVideo games
FoundedJune 2002 in Seoul, South Korea
FounderKwon Hyuk-Bin
Headquarters,
ProductsCrossfire
Lost Ark
Epic Seven
TalesRunner
Revenue1.577 trillion KRW (2022)
643 billion KRW (2022)
63.3 billion KRW (2022)
OwnerKwon Hyuk-Bin (100%)[1]
Number of employees
~3,300 (2023)
ParentSmilegate Holdings
SubsidiariesSmilegate Entertainment
Smilegate RPG
Smilegate Megaport
Smilegate Stove
Smilegate West
Smilegate Barcelona
SmilegateRealies
Smilegate AI
Smilegate Investment
Smilegate Asset Management
Orange Planet
Smilegate Foundation
Websitewww.smilegate.com/en

Smilegate is a South Korean video game company headquartered in Pangyo. It develops, publishes, and services online games on mobile and PC platforms.

Established in South Korea in 2002,[2] Smilegate is the creator of Crossfire, an FPS game with over six million concurrent players across the globe,[3] and many more distinguished titles.

Smilegate is a corporate group owned by Smilegate Holdings.

Smilegate is the first video game company to settle in Pangyo Techno Valley.

History

Smilegate is one of the Top 5 video game companies in South Korea. Its yearly revenue in 2020 surpassed 1 trillion KRW. The current number of employees is approximately 3,300, and the number is highly increasing every year.

Smilegate, along with Krafton, is admired by new and middle-market game development companies as it managed to rise to a position right below the dominant 3N (Nexon, NCSOFT, Netmarble) in the South Korean gaming industry with the success Crossfire and Lost Ark.

Crossfire

Crossfire is the world’s most popular online FPS that has reached more than 8 million concurrent users around the world. Crossfire is being serviced in 80 countries worldwide including China, Brazil, Vietnam, Northern America, and Europe.

Every year, Smilegate organizes an international Crossfire tournament with a prize pool of approximately 1 billion KRW titled CFS (CrossFire Stars). CFS has the largest scale among all tournaments held by video game companies in South Korea.

Smilegate made tremendous amount of revenue from Crossfire ever since its release. With the success of Crossfire, Smilegate was nominated as one of <THE TOP 30 DEVELOPERS>[4] by Game Developer.

According to a list[5] made in 2014 by SuperData Research, Crossfire made the most amount of revenue among all F2P games worldwide.

Crossfire was the world’s most played game until League of Legends took the first place in 2017.

Lost Ark

Lost Ark is a PC MMORPG developed by Smilegate RPG. Lost Ark was first released in South Korea in 2018 costing approximately 100 million KRW during the 7 years of development. It became increasingly popular in 2021 and became one of the top trending games in South Korea.

In February 2022, the game was launched in Northern America and Europe via Steam. Lost Ark reached more than 1.32 million concurrent users on Steam, becoming the most played game on the platform. The record of 1.32 million concurrent users is the second place in the entire history of Steam, the first place being 3.25 million concurrent users of PUBG: Battlegrounds. Considering that Lost Ark was only released in North America and Europe, some argue that Lost Ark was more impactful than PUBG: Battlegrounds, which was released in China as well.

Games

These are the games developed or published by Smilegate. Publisher and release dates are for South Korea unless otherwise noted.

Year Game Developer(s) Publisher(s) Genre Platform
2005 TalesRunner Rhaon Entertainment Smilegate Megaport Action Microsoft Windows
2007 Crossfire Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate
Tencent (China),
Lytogame (Indonesia)
FPS
2010 ProBaseball Manager Online Sega Smilegate Megaport Sports Mobile
2011 Freestyle2: Street Basketball JoyCity JoyCity (US),
Smilegate Megaport (South Korea)
Sports Microsoft Windowos
2012 MVP baseball online Smilegate Entertainment (South Korea) Sports Microsoft Windows
2013 Devil Maker: Tokyo Ncrew Entertainment Smilegate Megaport RPG Mobile
Eastern Blade Smilegate Megaport
2014 Qurare: Magic Library Palmple, iO Studio RPG Mobile, PlayStation 4 (2016)
2015 Dragon Fate Lion Games Studios Smilegate Entertainment RPG Mobile
Bunnypang Smilegate Smilegate Megaport Action Mobile
AZERA Timber Games Smilegate Entertainment MMORPG Microsoft Windows
Crossfire: Mobile Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment FPS Mobile
2017 SoulWorker Lion Games Studios Smilegate Entertainment MMORPG Microsoft Windows
Super Tank Rumble Lumidia Games Smilegate Entertainment Action Mobile
Epic Seven SUPER CREATIVE Smilegate Entertainment RPG
TAHN Tencent Games Smilegate Entertainment FPS
ChaosMasters Neoact Smilegate Entertainment RPG
WarReign Red Sahara Studio Smilegate Entertainment RTS
2018 Arcane Straight Gameplete Smilegate Megaport Card Battle RPG
Lost Ark Smilegate RPG, Tripod Studio Smilegate RPG MMORPG Microsoft Windows
2019 ROGAN: The Thief in the Castle Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment Stealth Action Adventure
Final Assault Phaser Lock Interactive Smilegate Entertainment RTS Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
2020 Crossfire: Zero Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment FPS Microsoft Windows
Crossfire: Warzone JoyCity Smilegate Entertainment RTS Mobile
2021 Crossfire HD Smilegate Entertainment Tencent (China) FPS Microsoft Windows
2022 CrossfireX Smilegate Entertainment, Remedy Entertainment Smilegate FPS Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Crossfire: Legion Blackbird Interactive Prime Matter Real-time strategy Microsoft Windows
2023 OUTERPLANE VA Games Smilegate Megaport RPG Mobile
Crossfire: Sierra Squad Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment FPS Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5 (PlayStation VR2)
TBA SkySaga: Infinite Isles Radiant Worlds Smilegate Entertainment Sandbox MMORPG Microsoft Windows

References

  1. Chung, Grace. "Online Hit Game CrossFire Mints South Korea's Richest Self-Made Billionaire". Forbes.
  2. Yoon Sung-won. "Smilegate vows to revitalize online game sector". Korea times. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  3. Lee Ji-yoon. "[Herald Interview] The woman behind success of 'Crossfire'". Korea herald. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  4. UBM TechWeb (2012). GDM JuneJuly 2012.
  5. Tassi, Paul. "CrossFire: Tencent's Top Earning Free-to-Play Game You've Never Heard Of". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
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